


Query

by prosodiical



Category: Original Work
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Other, Science Fiction, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 02:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11174769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prosodiical/pseuds/prosodiical
Summary: 'Extreme stress' as a trigger for 'porting to your soulmate seems good in theory, but for Alex, it can get a little inconvenient. Computers define these things differently, after all.





	Query

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Masu_Trout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masu_Trout/gifts).



Alex knocked once on the door, then again. When she finally got the all-clear she stepped through the door, carefully avoiding the stacks of old-fashioned paper and boxes of pipettes. "Hey," she said, a little awkwardly, as the professor - Li, from the sign on the door - spun around in her chair, pulling her headset up to rest on top of her birds-nest grey hair.

"Hello," she said, "What can I do for you? Are you a - a student?"

"Oh, no," Alex said quickly, "I mean, yes, but not in your class, sorry. I just wanted to know when your analysis would be finished. Is there any chance you could...?"

Eyebrows furrowing, Li said, "Certainly. Ship, query?"

"No current estimation, Professor Li," said the ship's neutral voice, as Alex opened her mouth and shut it again.

"Yeah," she said, "I, uh, tried that already."

"Do you need to do some modelling?" Li asked. "I'm sure if you go down to tech they'll be happy to free up a few petabytes for you."

"It's - " Alex worried her lower lip between her teeth. "Sorry," she said again, "but you didn't mark it down on the timesheet. Usually it's a week in advance, and they're running maintenance on Atlantis now, so..."

"Oh, do you work for tech? I'm sorry - I'll be sure to remember it for next time." Li smiled at her, friendly but obviously preoccupied. "I'm afraid my briefing was a little rushed - we don't have the same rules on Olympus, and I only moved here a few weeks ago. Was that all?"

"Do you have - some idea of how long it'll take?" Alex asked, slightly desperate. "A few hours, a day...?"

Li frowned, sketching some numbers in the air. "Ten from thirteen-hundred - I'd say it'll be finished by twenty-four-hundred today."

"Thank you," Alex said, and managed a smile that hopefully didn't look like she was quietly despairing inside. "I'll - let you get back to your work."

"I'm sorry if it's caused any problems," Li said. "I'll check the procedure for next time."

"Oh, no, it's okay," Alex lied, "the system's just a little - stressed, that's all. Thanks for letting me know!"

She left quickly, before she could say anything that would leave her any longer in the evacuating airlock. The University of Atlantis's halls were familiar to her by now, and Alex took a tram and then a lift down to the maintenance floor where the passing engineers didn't even spare her a glance.

There was an inflatable bean-bag in the corner of the server room that Alex had snuck in a year ago and everyone had politely ignored, and she fell into it now, burying her face in the fabric. "Ship, query," she said, when she had to pick herself up to breathe. "Is there any chance you could take over some of Professor Li's modelling calculations?"

"Negative, Miss Persaud."

"No... reallocating memory, or sparing a few clock cycles? No, don't answer that," she said, as the first syllable of 'negative' started again. "Sorry. I know I shouldn't be mad at you, it's not your fault."

"I apologise that systems were not effectively in place."

"Yeah," Alex said, and sighed. "I guess you can't 'port my homework over here either?"

"Negative. Video history is inaccessible at this time, and the physical recomposition of your notebook is unable to be completed with the current inadequate sensor array in your room."

"You're starting to sound like Atlantis," Alex said, smiling despite herself. "Picking stuff up from your elders, huh? Could you do my homework for me, Tian?"

"Negative, Miss Persaud."

"Well," Alex said, thinking mournfully of the half-finished calculations sitting in her notebook, "at least pull up a copy of the questions and what you can see for me, please. Professor Oates'll kill me if I ask for an extension again."

"As requested, Miss Persaud," Tianlong said, and Alex resigned herself to doing everything digitally as she tried to remember where she'd left off. Electromagnetic propulsion was a special brand of torture, she'd always thought, and it wasn't helped at all by being taught in Oates's droning voice. It wasn't as though anyone used EM drives anymore, not when 'porting was so much more efficient. 

"Why do we learn this stuff, anyway?" she said aloud, as she puzzled out field calculations in a vacuum. "I mean, it's like learning a drive train or something. Sure, it's important, but..."

Looking up at the ensuing silence, Alex bit her tongue and said, "Sorry," to no one at all. 

She did the rest of her work in the lingering quiet, with nothing but the gentle hum of cooling fans and purification systems. The proof came together slowly, and Alex was frowning over her answer - right, except for the negative direction - and trying to work out where she went wrong when the quiet was broken: "Shouldn't you be sleeping, Alex?"

"Atlantis!" Alex scrambled upright, lost her footing and fell back into her bean-bag chair. "Oh, crap, is it that time already? Could you look this over for me?"

"You've lost a minus here," said Atlantis, and helpfully highlighted the point in Alex's scribblings of work. "And, as I'm well aware you know, some older ships still use EM drives for propulsion. It's a fair sight better for structured orbit."

"Yeah, yeah," Alex said, "thanks. And that's the last question - what do you think?"

"I think you should be heading back to your dorm," Atlantis said, "Miss Persaud. It's well past your recommended sleeping time given your schedule tomorrow."

"It's a half-hour tram away," Alex said, rolling her eyes, "and I actually made it back there once before I got 'ported here again, if you check your logs." She closed the document with an absent wave of her hand, pulling herself to her feet and stretching her arms over her head, joints aching. "Come on, you can't blame me for that."

"No, I suppose not. I apologise for the disruption; I will endeavour to maintain a few exobytes separate from those sectioned for University use." Atlantis sounded thoughtful. "I hadn't anticipated the ongoing maintenance to pose a problem, but it seems to have compounded somewhat."

"Are you... okay?" Alex asked, curious. "It's just routine, right?"

"Routine enough. The standard upgrade and transfer expansion is taking most of my resources, but it should. And you?"

"Tired," Alex said, cataloguing herself, "but I'm fine, really. Sick to death of EM propulsion, though. You think you can send that assignment in for me?"

"As it is an incentive for you to attend class tomorrow - "

"I," Alex said, "have been a great student. Couldn't you put in a soulmate exemption form for me to skip?"

"Your studies were not adversely disrupted," Atlantis said, "as the declaration requires. In fact, I believe you completed this assignment faster than your usual average. Perhaps my absence does you a benefit."

"No, come on, Atlantis - "

"Your lectures are important to your personal growth," Atlantis said, "as you have repeatedly told me. You're deciding to change the definition now?"

Alex pulled a face and sighed. "No, not really," she said, "but all I've got is Professor Oates's class, and I can't listen to a word he says. Can't we just... take a day off? Just the two of us?"

"As I am currently in charge of most processes on this ship - "

"You know what I mean, don't lie," Alex said, and pulled her lower lip between her teeth. "We haven't had a date night for ages. Yeah, I know, your upgrades, my studies, but..."

"Your exams are scheduled for next rotation," Atlantis said. "Are you certain?"

"Yeah," Alex said, "yeah, I'm sure. I'll do fine, right? What's my probability curve?"

"Fifty-two percent chance of a ten, but I'm afraid it looks worse from there. I don't believe avoiding your classes is your best avenue to academic success."

"Maybe I care more about you than academic success," Alex said, and attempted a winning smile. "It's only one day, what harm could it do? Less than one percent, right?"

"...Yes," Atlantis agreed, after a pause. "I suppose if you insist on avoiding your class - "

"Great!" Alex headed out the server room door, into the even-more-empty maintenance corridors. "Then it's settled. Could you send that assignment out for me?"

"Miss Persaud," Atlantis said, chiding, and Alex bit back her smile.

"All right, all right," she said, "but seriously, there's no one here. Ship, query."

"Completed as requested, Miss Persaud," Atlantis said, in the modulated tone of the ship's artificial voice, and then, with a touch of amusement: "It's a date."


End file.
